The Armed Forces of the Philippines said that 14 soldiers were wounded in an encounter with the group of Abu Sayyaf Group leader Radullan Sahiron in Patikul, Sulu yesterday.
It was the second encounter between the Armed Forces and the Abu Sayyaf Group in three days and after the beheading of a German.
The first was on Wednesday in Patikul, Sulu in which five ASG members were killed and 11 soldiers on a mission to rescue 31 remaining hostages of the bandit group were wounded.
Army spokesman Col. Benjamin Hao Jr. said that based on initial reports they received from military commanders in the field, the firefight started at about 9 a.m.
Hao said troops from the Army 32nd Infantry Battalion and the 1st Infantry Division under Lt. Col. Ramon Flores were conducting field military operations in Kan Ugong, Barangay Igasan when they encountered an estimated 120 ASG members under Sahiron and sub leaders Sawadjaan and Almuher Yadah, resulting into an intense encounter that wounded 14 soldiers. An undetermined number of ASG members were wounded.
It is still raging as of press time.
The wounded soldiers who sustained shrapnel wounds were taken to the Camp Teodolfo Bautista Trauma Hospital in Zamboanga City.
A grandson of Sahiron who was converted into a child warrior was reportedly wounded in the encounter.
The military is verifying if there were ASG members who were killed in the encounter.
The Department of National Defense had vowed to use the full might of the AFP to once and for all defeat the ASG.
In a statement read by Defense Undersecretary Arsenio Andolong, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said they are pursuing “these animals” with the full force of the law. (FRANCIS T. WAKEFIELD)